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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22969018">Pint of the best</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tango65/pseuds/tango65'>tango65</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Professionals (TV 1977)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:07:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,980</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22969018</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tango65/pseuds/tango65</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Discovered in a Live Journal challenge - Discovered in a Yuletide Spirit - "Pint of the best".</p><p>Doyle is missing whilst on protective duty with his chopper going down.  What can Bodie do until they know more?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>William Bodie &amp; Ray Doyle, William Bodie/Ray Doyle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pint of the best</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bodie let Murph lead him into the pub.  His mind was whirling, oblivious to his surroundings, until he felt a cold nudge against his hand.  "A pint of the best," Murphy pointed out softly, "get it into you."  Bodie first shook his head, this was not how he had planned to spend his Christmas, but then he lifted the glass to his mouth and drank half of it without thought.  Then his brain did kick in.  "Pint of the best" his mind scoffed, "I had that the other night". His musings continued although all Murph could see was a blank stare. "I had that the other night" he thought as he remembered his amazing night with his partner.  "Doyle" he whispered to himself softly, eyes glazing as he desperately fought tears.  Tough men didn't cry, not even tough men whose partner and lover was missing.......</p><p>Bodie tried to shy away from that line of thinking as he further drank his "Pint of the best", even noticing distractedly that Murph was looking everywhere but at him.  Of course it was all uncomforable.  Not knowing, but was that worse than knowing the truth - when the truth could mean.........</p><p>He slammed down on that thought as he slammed the now empty glass back down on the table and stood.  Murph fliched at the sudden action but held fast as the full force of Bodie's glare was turned on him.  "What are we doing here," Bodie demanded, "we should be out there..........".  He trailed off, not knowing how what he wanted to say about his partner and "out there".</p><p>Before Murph had a chance to respond, Anson slammed through the door of the pub and sighting them, called them over.  "The explosion" he gasped "it wasn't them". He continued as the lads joined him and they headed back to CI5 "Cowley's gathering the mob for instructions now. Its an all agent callout".  On that note, Bodie bolted, running ahead of his colleagues, arriving breathing hard, but keyed up and ready to go.  Cowley was waiting.</p><p>As soon as Bodie entered, with Murphy and Anson right behind, Cowley began.  "Agent 4.5 was on a bodyguard mission, accompanying a minister who had received credible death threats, from his country home back to London when radio and radar contact with the helicopter was lost, approximately one hour ago.  An explosion occured in a remote area in the same vicinity as the helicopter was last heard from, so it was assumed that they had crashed."  Bodie perked up at the "assumed". Emergency services have located the site of the explosion and it is unrelated to our missing helicopter."  Bodie nearly erupted out of his seat, but was restrained by Murphy.  "Let him finish", he hissed in Bodie's ear.  With a irrated grunt and a glare from Cowley, Bodie subsided.</p><p>"Furthermore," Cowley continued "police have informed of us of several reports of a helicopter flying very erratically and possibly landing in the Epping Forest. Due to the unfortunate weather, there are not many people in the vicinity, so we don't have any more information than that." Again, Bodie went to rise, but subsided at another glare from Cowley.  "Bodie," he continued, "Murphy, Anson get over to the heliport. A helicopter is waiting and will take you straight to Epping Forest.  Find them!" The three men quickly departed, with Cowley demanding regular reports as they left, before turning to the rest of the agents assembled to instruct them to follow via road.</p><p>Bodie leaned over impatiently from his place in the front of the helicopter, squinting through the gloom, trying to find some hint of the missing chopper. The teeming rain and gloom that hung over the whole area were irritating, but not distracting. Nothing was going to stop Bodie from finding his partner, and when he did........  </p><p>Suddenly, "There!" Anson yelled, pointing to a location to the left of the helicopter.  The pilot quickly circled around and hovered near the site - they had found the missing helicopter and could see that the doors were flung wide open but there was no sign of life anywhere.  "We can't land here" yelled the pilot over the noise of the rotors, "I'll have to put down somewhere else."  "No!" Bodie just about shouted, then pointing to a slight clearing in the canopy, he instructed "Just take us there as low as you can and we'll get down."  Although the pilot looked sceptical, the desperate look on Bodie's face convinced him to give it a try.</p><p>Minutes later, all three CI5 agents were earthbound once more, as the helicopter headed back to base. Making use of the available cover, they moved stealthily towards the downed helicopter, scouting around for any sign of movement. There was none.  Bodie's heart started beating faster, but he kept his head as they checked the scene.  The helicopter itself had taken a beating, with branches caught in the skids and debris across every surface.  Bodie's breath hitched as he caught sight of damage of another type inside the helicopter - the pilot was dead, a trail of blood down his chest pointing to the path of the bullet that had plunged through his chest.  And that wasn't all - more blood, which did not come from the pilot.  Murphy was on the RT giving up update and looked to Bodie who passed on "Pilot's dead, more blood in the cockpit, but don't know whose."  Murphy paled, but duly passed on that information.  </p><p>Anson, had been scouting around and called their attention, "I think they went this way", indicating a trail with broken branches.  Bodie didn't want to look too carefully, but still managed to note the drops of blood which the weather had yet to obliterate.</p><p>A slight crackling on their RTs startled the three men and Bodie quickly grabbed his to silence it, but was startled even further, when his partner's voice issued quietly from its depths.  "4.5 to any CI5 personnel in range", came whispered over the airwaves.  "Agent in need of assistance." Bodie nearly dropped his RT in his haste to respond. "3.7 to 4.5," it took all his control to whisper, "Where the f.... are you?" he swore in relief.  "Holed up in a pub" came the reply "with some nasty guests.  The beer is terrible and I'm running out of ammo'.  Bodie, looked to Murphy and Anson who shrugged.  "Which pub" he asked carefully. "How the f...  should I know?" came the heated but still quiet reply, "I didn't get a chance to check out the signs as we came in!"</p><p>A pause whilst gunfire was heard in the background.  Then, "You're obviously close, did you find which way we went?" the annoyed tone continued.  "That elephant trail?" Bodie responded, "Hard to miss that".  "Well then," came the impatient response from Doyle, "keep following your nose and you'll find us." And with that, the connection closed, but quickly re-opened, "but hurry!" And again the connection closed, this time with a finality that only Doyle could express through an inanimate object.</p><p>Bodie could hear Murphy updating Cowley as he plunged into the forest, fast but not so fast that the trail woudl be lost - and with Anson and Murphy close behind.  In what was minutes, but to Bodie felt like hours, they sighted the pub and the reason that Doyle wasn't more jumped up about being there. The pub was closed due to a major power failure, so it was likely it would be Doyle, his protectee and whomever the opposition was.  And was, being the operative term in Bodie's mind - anyone who tried to take out Doyle was going to have more on their hands than they ever could have imagined in their most horrific nightmares.</p><p>Even as they heard the occasional gunfire, Bodie was waving Murphy and Anson into postion with handsignals, before clicking his RT twice - hoping that would let his partner know they were there.  Before they could breach however, one of the pub's back doors opened and a gunmen slid out with purpose.  Bodie quickly determined that we was moving around to get a better position to get to Doyle and that just wasn't going to happen.  Without a sound, Bodie quickly took the man out and secured him from further involvement in proceedings.  "All things considered," Bodie thought later as Cowley lectured him about keeping suspects in a state to be questioned, "he had been quite restrained."</p><p>Listening for a moment longer to the sounds of the sporadic gunfire, Bodie determined there were at least two more men inside, working against his partner.  They were obviously waiting for their third man to give them the advantage, not knowing that their advantage had been lost.  Turning to Murphy and Anson and with new information, their plan of attack was updated with hand signals and on Bodie's sign, they breached.</p><p>Within a few minutes, it was all over.  The two remaining gunmen were captured with little fight, once they realised the numbers were now against them.  The third - the Minister's aide, the leader of the threat to the Minister, was dead - taken out by Doyle.  Once Bodie was sure the remaining men had been secured and that Murphy was reporting in, he turned to find his partner and the Minister.  He had only gotten brief glimpses earlier, where Doyle had been hiding with the Minister behind what used to be a Christmas tree.</p><p>Doyle finally stood up and drawing the Minister out of his protective cover, shepherded his charge to the newly arrived Cowley and then shook himself like a sheep dog.  It must have been the relief, he thought later, but at this point of time Bodie couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.  Once Doyle had cleared the cloud of fir needles, tinsel and Christmas baubles which had been showered down on him in the gunfight, he turned to glare at his partner's mirth. But both the glare and the mirth were brief, as with all that happened in those previous hours, including a wound in his arm, Doyle's slowly crumpled.  Bodie's mirth was gone in an instant, grabbing his partner before he hit the ground and yelling for someone to get an ambulance.</p><p>But before he had even finished getting the words out, Bodie felt movement in his arms.  Doyle was trying to sit up. "Doyle, Ray, stay still."  "I'm OK" Ray tried to soothe his distressed partner, "it's just a graze, and it's been a bit of a trying day", the latter said with in campy voice, with a small grin to reassure his obviously distressed partner. The words and the smile which was for him alone, were more than enough to elminate his immediate concern, however he wasn't done with his trouble-prone partner.  "Still," he said with mock severity, as he helped his partner to his feet, "you will get seen to."  Doyle sighed deeply and then gave a short nod.  Bodie relaxed and turned to the clean-up.  </p><p>A few hours later, the lads were home, Doyle with his arm bandaged and a few days off to recover, with Bodie assigned as his bodyguard by their illustrious leader (at Bodie's prompting of course).  After all, they didn't know yet, just how far the conspiracy went, but that was for the lads to sort out.  Snuggled up close on the couch in front of a now roaring fire and the 'other pint of the best' at hand, Bodie continued to pull pieces of tinsel, baubles and fir out of his partner's hair. "My own personal Christmas tree", he muttered under his breath.  Doyle sat up turned to his partner, stared at him long and hard before settling back into his arms.  "You better believe it" was all that needed to be said. They'd get to the real 'pint of the best' later.  And repeatedly.</p>
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